I bought the full Creative Cloud in hopes of making a career for myself in audio/visual editing. The problem is, my system doesn't seem to be able to handle the software, particularly when changing back and forth between the three programs mentioned above. Beyond that, my first project failed to export properly. Moreover, all throughout its development the system lagged badly. And this is after having followed all the preferences recommendations available in the Adobe's tutorials and elsewhere on the Web.

Adobe's minimum specs are a joke unless you are using SD (standard definition) video!

I'm not a pro, but have a strong enthusiast system: Intel 8-core (yours is 4 core plus 4 Hyperthreads; I see 16 cores in task manager with 8 core + 8 hyperthreads), 64GB of RAM (After Effects loves RAM and some pros use 128GB), GTX Titan GPU (would buy GTX 970 or 980 if was building a system today), 1 boot SSD and an Areca RAID data array for media, projects, etc.

Premiere Pro was used to edit Gone Girl and the "pro" system used for that probably ran about $20,000 - dual Xeon, 128GB RAM, fast RAID array, and more. In that case they were cutting 6k media - a very serious challenge!

You really need to post what media you will be using. The requirements for HD, consumer 4k, and RED 4k are dramatically different.

I agree with Bill too, check out PPBM7.com. You should benchmark your current system too to see how SLOW it is as compared with the faster systems tested here.

...although a little " old" now.....the fundamentals of your machine are still OK to get started IF you : 1. INCREASE your system memory to the full 32 GB....should make a BIG difference in performance.....8 GB is NOT enough, it will HINDER performance. 2. OVERCLOCK your CPU !!!.....many owners of your CPU have been safely running at 4.5 Ghz or HIGHER...some at 4.8 Ghz !!! This OC will make a DRAMATIC improvement as CPU speed is a huge factor in performance. 3. Improve your video card to a new NVidia 970 with 4 GB of video memory. 4. Check and MAKE SURE the power supply in your machine is ADEQUATE to handle everything, esp. if you overclock the CPU....generally 850 to 1,000 watts of a quality make is good. 5. Use a fast storage system...that means a SATA III SSD as your "C" drive, ( boot drive), being a Crucial M550 series,( or, M600 series), OR, a Samsung 850 Pro series SSD, ( more expensive). Other SSDs are NOT recommended, only these two makes are recommended for technical reasons. On this "C" drive, you should have Operating system, Programs, and Windows page file ONLY !! Your "D" drive can be ANOTHER single SSD to be used as a "cache drive" for all the previews, media cache, and cache files that Premier Pro creates PLUS, it can ALSO serve as the "Global Performance cache" used in After Effects. All your media and project files can go on your "E" drive. HERE you would have LIMITED OPTIONS because your motherboard only has TWO SATA III ports, ( which would already be used b the "C" and "D" SSDs). You NOW have only 4 SATA II ports left ......you COULD RAID 0 four 1 TB HDDs off these ports and have a 4TB backup drive connected to one of your TWO USB 3 external ports.....any DVD or Blue-ray can ALSO go on an external port.

However, if you are into spending REAL MONEY !!!.....Go Haswell E and X99 all the way !!...THAT will give you great performance !!

I appreciate the time. Just correction: I am showing 8 cores in Task Manger (view preference when tabbed to performance - "one graph per core". And the model number I gave above is not showing all the system is capable of. Here's something better:

Right now the X99 system with DDR4 gives the best performance for media content applications especially with GPU acceleration. I would suggest a I7 5960X, 32GB of DDR4 2666, 980GTX video card and Asus X99 board with the storage dependent on the media. That will far out perform the 2600 which is 2 generations old at this point and is only a Quad core with HT. The same X99 boards can also handle the V3 Xeons if you need to upgrade the CPU in the future for greater realtime load.

I appreciate the time. Just correction: I am showing 8 cores in Task Manger (view preference when tabbed to performance - "one graph per core". And the model number I gave above is not showing all the system is capable of. Here's something better:

I'm curious what I can upgrade the video card to. Once I find out, I can try that as well.

Another question:

Does the quality of monitor matter? I have a Sony television connected to my system, with an ASUS monitor off to the side. Any thoughts?

Take a look at What Video Card To Use, the data there is a little bit dated but . In my opinion, with that antique i7-2600 CPU there is no reason to upgrade from your GTX 550. Now if you are planning on a changing to Eric's recommended X99 true 8 core (16 thread) configuration then a GTX 980 would indeed be appropriate

The monitor does not figure in to performance, only quality of the image you see.